free britney

While we see that exercising their profession continues to be complicated for Russian athletes due to sanctions, and that Ukrainian athletes are rightly sought to be supported as much as possible, there is an American professional basketball player from the WNBA detained in Moscow since last February 17 .

And this is not a low profile athlete. When Brittney Griner traveled back to the Russian nation to continue her season with UMMC Yekaterinburg, I never imagined being arrested in a nation where she has been playing every winter since 2015, where she also earns more than a million dollars each season, four times more than as a representative of the WNBA.

At 31, Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, a seven-time all-star and boasts a title with the Phoenix Mercury, in addition to having a national championship with Baylor University and countless accolades such as being the No. 1 selection in the 2013 Draft. She is one of 12 WNBA basketball players who played last season in Russia and the Ukraine, although all except her, fled since the invasion.

Under the argument that electronic cigarette cartridges had been found and that an oil derived from cannabis was later found inside them, Brittney faces up to 10 years in prison.

What little has been reported is that she shares a cell with two other women accused of narcotics crimes and that they speak English to facilitate their communication with prison staff, while her height of 2.05 m has been problematic for the beds. They also report that no US consul has visited her.

In case the situation is not clear and in the face of much silence on the part of the State Department in the US due to a strategy that does not harm it, it is feared that, as has happened on many occasions between nations with conflicts of interest, Griner is being used as an advantage in negotiations between the Putin and Biden governments.

I can’t help but wonder how this case would be handled in the media and politically if it were a star NBA player? The last thing that is known is that a Russian court has extended his detention until May 19.

The WNBA season begins on May 6 and everything indicates that Phoenix will not have one of its stars. Beyond sports, the interest of all of us who follow the case, his wife, colleagues and friends of his is that he first return to the United States as soon as possible.